Nick sat hunched in the hospital waiting room, clutching a cup of stale coffee. He hadn't left Yuna's side since they'd found her lying in a pool of blood on the bathroom floor, barely clinging to life.
It had been several agonizing hours since they had rushed her into emergency surgery. Nurses gave sympathetic smiles but no concrete updates when he pleaded for information.
Nick's mind still reeled over what had transpired. After being called to remove him at the end of visiting hours, an ominous unease had gripped his gut. He convinced the staff to let him stay until he knew Yuna was asleep, then reluctantly left.
Now, racked with guilt, he realized she must have awakened and snuck out of her room shortly after. He should have trusted his instincts and refused to leave her side that night. She had needed him, and he hadn't been there to stop her from attempting suicide.
Just 48 hours earlier, Nick had found Yuna broken and bloodied on his doorstep after her father's vicious attack. Rage simmered within him thinking about the unforgivable brutality she had endured in that house.
And now, betrayed by her own mother too, Yuna had been driven to take her own life at just 16 years old. Nick was filled with sorrow at the immense pain she must have been carrying for so long in secret.
Finally a doctor emerged looking drained. "It was touch and go for awhile, but she's pulled through surgery and her condition is stable," he informed Nick. Weak with relief, Nick thanked him profusely before being allowed to see Yuna.
They had pumped her stomach to clear out the pills she had hoarded from past hospital visits. Machines beeped steadily and an IV dripped fluids into her bruised arm, replacing what she had lost. But she was alive - that was all that mattered to Nick.
He kissed Yuna's forehead gently, not wanting to cause any more discomfort. But he hoped somehow she could sense his presence by her side, the place he vowed always to remain no matter how many times he had to pull her back from the edge of darkness.
Though the road ahead was unsure, Nick knew he would walk each step with Yuna. Her pain had become his; her life, his responsibility. She would wake soon from this nightmare into a present forever changed, but not into a future without hope.